Can Singleness Really Be Sacred?-Introduction

I am so, So, SOSOSOSO excited introduce this new series on singleness with you all! Just to clarify-
FOR THIS SERIES: ALL QUOTED MATERIAL WILL BE ITALICIZED.
I just think that will make it easier to differentiate my words versus the people I am quoting (and there will be quite a few quotes let me tell you!)


I am currently reading an amazing book by Leslie Ludy called "Sacred Singleness" and have been so blessed with it that I have decided to start a series ,based on the book, highlighting the main points of each chapter and then including my own personal findings. I have not really written on the subject of singleness lately but I was one of the people that was certain I would be married at 18 and pregnant at 19 :) Well I am 19 and neither of those have come to pass and God has seen fit to make it so that there really are not any prospects right now. Until a few weeks ago I had allowed discontentment to creep into my heart and instead of living a victorious single life for my Lord I was living a mediocre one that was causing a lot of compromise. So I CHOSE to not live like that anymore and asked Him to take away the discontentment and all the problems it was causing and replace it with a spirit of complete surrender and trust in the fact that HE IS IN CONTROL! I was content to just wait around but now…I really believe that the Lord has called me to minister to others via missions. I am going to school for nursing. I am planning a short terms mission trip. I am ministering to other single girls. Does this mean that I am not lonely sometimes…yeah I am but…those are the times that I just have to surrender it once again to my Lord trusting in His timing and CHOOSE to live each day faithfully fulfilling the callings He has for my life right now as a single girl and reading this book has really encouraged me in that as I hope it will encourage you.

God has been taking me on quite a journey this past year especially in regards to singleness. In a post dated Wednesday, February 11, 2009 I wrote these words:

One thing that I have always wanted to be is a wife and mother. The Lord started asking me a few months ago if HE was enough for me. The sad thing was that for the longest time He was not. When I truly surrendered my ALL to Him however He did become enough.

"Lady in Waiting
is not about finding the right man,
but becoming the right woman.
The lady in waiting
recklessly abandons herself
to the Lordship of Christ,
diligently uses her single days,
trusts God with unwavering faith,
demonstrates virtue in daily life,
loves God with UNRESTRICTED devotion,
stands for physical and emotional purity,
lives in security,
responds to life in contentment,
makes choices based on her convictions,
and waits patiently for God
to meet her needs."

The whole waiting patiently for God to meet my needs...yeah, God is so faithful and I am in just in awe that He would love and care for someone like me :) So I am purposing in my heart to continue to live each and every single second of my day for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but ALSO waiting patiently on Him for His timing of things. I am so grateful I serve a patient God!

I absolutely love that poem! The thought of loving God with UNRESTRICTED DEVOTION. WOW what an AWESOME thought! To be able to look back on our single years and be able so say that we lived those years with UNRESTRICTED DEVOTION to the Lord!

Is that even possible? I mean I have asked that question a million times in the past year especially.

CAN SINGLENESS REALLY BE A SACRED AND JOY-FILLED TIME? I mean so often it can be so hard and lonely watching others pair off and being well...alone. Can even that time be sacred and joy-filled?

The simple answer...

YES IT CAN!

So here comes the next question:

HOW?

The simple answer...

God has made us for Himself and our hearts can never know rest and perfect satisfaction until they find it in HIM. (Hannah Hurnard)

It is all about HIM! In HIM ALONE can that void in our hearts be filled. In HIM ALONE. I absolutely love this poem and I know that I have shared it with you all before but another time won't hurt I don't think:

On His Plan For Your Mate
Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone, to have a deep soul relationship with another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively.

But God says to a Christian, "No, not until you are satisfied and fulfilled and content with living, loved by me alone, with giving yourself totally and unreservedly to me alone. I love you, my child, and until you discover that only in me is your satisfaction to be found, you will not be capable of the perfect human relationship that I have planned for you. You will never be united with another until you are united with me, exclusive of anyone or anything else, exclusive of any other desires or longings.

"I want you to stop planning, stop wishing, and allow me to give you that most thrilling plan existing, one that you can't imagine. I want you to have the BEST! Please allow me to bring it to you. You just keep watching me, expecting that satisfaction, expecting the greatest things, and know that I Am. Keep learning and listening to the things I tell you. You must wait!

"Don't be anxious. Don't worry. Don't look around at the things others have received. Don't look at the things you think you want. You just keep looking off and away up to me, or you'll miss what I want to show you.

"And then, when you're ready, I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than you would ever imagine. You see, until you are ready and until the one I have for you is ready (I am working this very minute to have both of you ready at the same time), until you are both satisfied exclusively with me and the life I have planned and prepared for you, you won't be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with me...and this is perfect love.

"Dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love. I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with me and to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty and perfection and love that I offer you with myself. Know that I love you utterly, I am God Almighty. Believe and be satisfied."

--Author Unknown

To be satisfied with JESUS CHRIST alone...wow...what a glorious thought :) And that is what we will be studying in the upcoming segments SO PLEASE STICK AROUND! :)

In the meanwhile I wanted to share with you an article (it has two parts) from YLCF that REALLY encouraged me and got me thinking:

Marriage Is Not My Highest Calling-Part 1
Marriage Is Not My Highest Calling-Part 2

DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THOSE LINKS AS MUST READS!!

And last but certainly not least I would love to direct you over to one of my newest blogging friends Katie. She is the author of a really amazing blog called God Will Bless Those Who Wait which is described as "Thoughts for those who have decided to wait on God and trust Him for their mate." It is really been encouraging to me and I am sure will encourage all of you :)

So are you ready to start on this journey? I am! I truly have been shying away from mentioning ANYTHING about being single but lately I have just had this new FREEDOM and I really believe that the Lord wants me to share it with all of you :)

Let the journey begin...

Miss any part of the series? Read them here:
Can Singleness Really Be Sacred?-Chapter 1
Can Singleness Really Be Sacred?-Chapter 2
All Good Things Must Come To An End

Moving forward

Hey all :)
I am really excited to share with you some changes that I have made around here.
1st of all-
You may have noticed the handy dandy navigation bar that has appeared under my blogger header! These are just to make things a little bit easier for you all my wonderful blogger readers :)


-Home: Well it is just that...a link to my home page (not all that exciting lol).

-Tweet with Me: This is a new thing that I am very excited about! I have a twitter account and I kind of use it as my mini blog :) I love getting new followers and this is the place to go if you are interested in what I am doing daily.

-What Do They Say: This one of two challenges that I have for my readers. It is an article I wrote quite a while ago but is a challenge that I believe all of us should be pondering daily.

-About me: This is what is says! Pretty self explanatory! Oh and it has a list of the blogs that I follow.

-CONTACT: This is something that I am really REALLY excited about! I really really want to hear what my readers think! I also want to get to know and build relationships with my readers, pray for my readers and encourage my readers in any way that I can. SO I HAVE CREATED AN EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THAT EXPRESS PURPOSE! I love to get mail and will get back to each and every one of you as soon as I can. My email address is: surrendered110@yahoo.com. You can get right to it just by clicking on the button. I would love to hear from you!

OK so that is my new navigation bar.

The second thing is on the right of my page the 1st item on the very top which is a picture that looks like this:

If you would click on it there is an article that I have written about NO COMPROMISE that I would love for every person who ever reads my blog to read. After I rededicated this blog to the Lord I realized that this blogs purpose should be to point others to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to encourage and challenge others and myself to life a 110% Surrendered life FOR HIM. So please check that out.


I am also reading an amazing book by Leslie Ludy called "Sacred Singleness" and have been so blessed with it that I have decided to start a series on it highlighting the main points and then including my own personal findings. I have not really written on the subject of singleness lately but I was one of the people that was certain I would be married at 18 and pregnant at 19 :) Well I am 19 and neither of those have come to pass and God has seen fit to make it so that there really are not any prospects right now. Until a few weeks ago I had allowed discontentment to creep into my heart and instead of living a victorious single life for my Lord I was living a mediocre one that was causing a lot of compromise. So I CHOSE to not live like that anymore and asked Him to take away the discontentment and all the problems it was causing and replace it with a spirit of complete surrender and trust in the fact that HE IS IN CONTROL! I was content to just wait around but now…I really believe that the Lord has called me to minister to others via missions. I am going to school for nursing. I am planning a short terms mission trip. I am ministering to other single girls. Does this mean that I am not lonely sometimes…yeah I am but…those are the times that I just have to surrender it once again to my Lord trusting in His timing and CHOOSE to live each day faithfully fulfilling the callings He has for my life right now as a single girl and reading this book has really encouraged me in that as I hope it will encourage you. So that will be starting soon as well!

WHEW! That is basically it! God has been doing so many amazing things and I am really excited to see where He leads in all this!

What are your thoughts? I love any suggestions you would have to offer!

Blessings to you all :)

And...she's back (and talking in 3rd person)

Hey all you fellow bloggers out there!
As my title has already announced (but I am going to say it again just in case you did not get it the 1st time) I AM BACK!
Ok, ok, so I know I really was not gone all that long but some of the lessons that God has taught me (and is STILL teaching me) have made these last few weeks seem quite long.

*WARNING: At this time Katy gets real up close and personal*

I am going to shoot straight with you all. These past few months I have really struggled in my Christian walk. By struggle I mean I started to allow a lot of compromise into my life. I had fallen into this sickening, vicious circle of compromise, mediocrity and lukewarmness and the scariest part was that I reached a point where I did not really even care anymore. The ironic thing is that the stuff that I was dealing with is not even necessarily bad YET in my heart I knew it was wrong. Attitudes, the way I related to my family, pride, discontentment with where God has me...you name it, it was there!

The longer I allowed these compromises to continue the more I began to struggle. Then one day I realized that I could not be posting on this blog about being 110% surrendered while I was allowing these attitudes and compromises to take root in my life. One day I just could not stand the hypocrisy of it anymore and that is why I declared a blog hiatus. God began to work on me even more once I made that first step towards living a life with NO COMPROMISE. Part of that work was taking me to a place of loneliness and solitude so that I would finally get my eyes off of pleasing other people and instead started to focus on just pleasing HIM.

Throughout this journey I realized that this blog had become something that defined me as a person. If I had a ton of followers/comments I was so happy but if I did not have as many I would start to worry that I was not ministering as much as I should have been or I was not making a difference. Over time it seemed as though I became invisible and I really struggled with not being the center of things as much anymore (gotta love that pride that pops up in ones life just when you are LEAST expecting it!). I struggled with these feelings on inferiority and discontentment for a few weeks. Then I got a call from my adopted older brother and after listening to me pour out my frustrations and feelings of inferiority and not knowing who I was anymore he got really quiet. Then he asked me a question that went something like this (not exact but this is what I got out of it): WHO IS THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE DEFINING WHO YOU ARE? WOW! In that moment I realized how far off my focus was! In a split second my eyes were opened to how I had allowed discontentment (more about that later) and compromise to HINDER my ministry and the reason was because instead of looking to my Savior for what I thought was my worth I was looking to others. NOT GOOD! As Christians GOD is the One that defines us and without Him we are NOTHING. So why do we think that we are something in and of ourselves?

I have been pondering that for the past few weeks. So what am I doing about this?

1st of all I decided that I needed to re-surrender my life to my Lord with the intent of NO COMPROMISE and living each and every day 110% SURRENDERED to MY LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

2ndly I decided to re-surrender this blog to the Lord. Please know that I do not want this blog to ever be about me. Whether you have been reading for awhile of have just found me my deepest desire is to be a mirror...of my precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When people look at me I don't want them to see Katy-I want them to see Jesus Christ shining through Katy. As a part of that I have decided to start a new series which Lord willing will last ;) and my new theme is NO COMPROMISE not only in the big things but in DAY-TO-DAY life.

Ok...whew! I think that is it...what are your thoughts? What has God been doing in your life lately? I would love to hear about it :)

Blessings to you all!

There comes a time...

Hey all you fellow bloggers out there!
I am going to be completely truthful.
These past few weeks have been incredibly
incredibly hard. Spiritually, mentally, emotionally
and physically. With school and work and
trying to keep up with different ministries and working
through surrendering some things to the Lord
I have just been being stretched to the
max.
So, after talking to my Mom last night, I have
decided to take a hiatus from blogging for
a little bit. I will still be around
but right now I need to focus on my Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ and then schoolwork.
If you could please pray for me that I would be
able to bring honor and glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ and also that I would be able to use my time
wisely. Also, that school...I really need to make top grades
to get into the program that I really feel the Lord is leading
me too and I am really struggling with one of the classes.
I want to hear from you still! If you have anything that you
want to talk to me about and don't want to leave it on a comment
feel free to email me: surrendered110@yahoo.com
. I will probably still be posting at least once a week so
keep visiting :)
Praying for you all and talk to you soon!

Holiness....HOLINESS...is what I LONG for!

Hey all you fellow bloggers out there!
Life has turned into a crazy whirlwind of school and then work and then homework and then friends and then ministries and then...the cycle begins all over again.

Busyness can be a real hard thing for me. While I love being busy and doing a lot of things I tend to not take the time I need to to spend with the Lord...then I tend to start compromising and not sticking to my convictions the way I KNOW I need to because I am not spending enough time with Him.

SO last night was one of those nights were I had to ONCE AGAIN (I am so thankful I serve a forgiving GOD) throw myself at the feet of my Lord and get my eyes on Him once again.

Tonight I was reminded AGAIN of the fact that Jesus Christ the Son of the MOST HIGH GOD CHOSE to die for me...as I was thinking about that I was reminded of a poem I had written on night that the Lord really just showed Himself to me in a whole new way a few months ago.

On that night I took my Bible and journal and went down to the secret place (our woods) and for 2 hours just...prostrated myself before the Lord and begged Him to reveal Himself to me and to use me and to make me more like Him. Then I just was thinking about how He says He will give us the desires of our hearts and if we abide in Him He will give us what we ask in His name (John 15) or something like that and I realized that the ONLY thing that I truly wanted right then and there was just to KNOW HIM and to BE LIKE HIM...and...to have Him reveal Himself to me.

HE DID! It was amazing! It was the first time I had EVER taken the time to seek His face in earnest like that! WOW! He truly did reveal Himself to me in a deeper, more intimate way BUT it was not...it was...it is just so hard to explain! All I can say is WE SERVE AN AWESOME GOD!!!

I ended up writing this poem when I was just full of raw emotions. I have not named it yet but yeah here it is:

"Just like I count the time
Was it on Your mind?
As You broke the bread and poured the wine
What was going through Your mind
And now it's time to go; to the garden
were You know
No one will stay, they'll all run away
and You'll be left alone.

Just like I count the time
Was it on Your mind?
As You went away, fell on Your knees to say
“Not My will but Thine.”
Three times You said “Your will be done”
Then you looked, saw them come
words where spoken, a kiss betrayed, and then
my Jesus, You were took away.

Just like I count the time
Was it on Your mind?
As You faced the evil men and knew
You were going to be condemned
As You looked into their eyes You didn't
despise, instead, You prayed for them.

Just like I count the time
Was it on Your mind?
Knowing what You would endure
The suffering You bore
“My God, My God” You screamed out
“Why have You left me now”
In anguish and suffering...He hung upon a tree

Why you ask would any man...
All He had...
What on earth could possess someone
to lay down His life for all mankind?
What could it be?
The answer is unfailing love.

He lived you enough to willingly die
He loved you that's why He chose to lay down His life.
He know on our own we could never atone
for the sin that ruled our lives.
So He chose to be that atonement, that substitute for me,
Not because of what I'd done did He choose to come BUT because He
love me in spite of me.
It was His choice that took Him to Calvary.

After all He has done why do we find it such a hardship to
run and fling ourselves in complete surrender at His feet?
He loved you. He loved me. He died, then rose, to prove how powerful love can be.
Unreserved and there for the asking-His unfailing love is everlasting.
For as He looked ahead to the cross that day-we were on His mind.

Written with tears on May 23, 2009 In the secret place"

I am heading of to PA with Abby and Jen tomorrow :) I will be back Monday with many pictures and stories I am sure!

So what are your thoughts? I would love to hear from some of you especially the ones I never have heard from before :) Who is Jesus to you?

Also the Amy Challenge post that I was going to do is going to have to be postponed indefinitely...this week was so crazy I didn't get a chance to get my pictures for each day BUT you can still go on over to Authentic Beauty and check out her posts :)

Blessings to you all!

Abby's challenge

Challenge #2:
Ever have one of those days when one of your sibling just...blows you away with a convicting challenge? I had one of those days a few Sundays ago.
As many of you know, my younger sister Abby had the awesome opportunity to go to Papua New Guinea with New Tribes Missions for 5 1/2 weeks this summer. About two weeks after she got home she gave a presentation of her time there in our evening service. I wanted leave you with this excerpt of her presentation to ponder:



Yes I am reposting this. Why? Well, because I kind of felt like it was a tack on to the last post and I really just wanted to focus on this PLUS it is my blog so I can do what I want! lol ;)

Even if we are not necessarily called to foreign missions what are we doing here? It is so easy to just stay in our own little comfortable Christian bubble and to not even make that much of an effort to reach the lost! What she said about only ONE man in a TWO HOUR radius being unsaved...HOW MANY PEOPLE IN OUR TWO MILE RADIUS' ARE UNSAVED? May God give us HIS heart for this dying people ALL AROUND US that are DESTINED for an eternity in hell!



What are we doing with the privilege we have been given-the GOSPEL?

What are YOU doing?

A Challenge for you and The Amy Challenge: Day Uno

Hey all :)
So I know how much you LOVE challenges so I thought that ,being as it is Monday and the beginning of a new week, I would share two challenges with you that have challenged me lately :)

Challenge #1:
This one is a fun challenge :) I unfortunately did not get to do yesterday because I was gone ALL day long and didn't get a chance to get a picture. SO, I am starting a day late but that is ok.



Shirt: I actually have a brown tee on and then my ultra cool, very I don't know what style poncho that I got for $0.99 at a thrift store :)
Skirt: Seriously like one of my favorite skirts EVER which I got from Abby in an exchange for jeans for her (we were both very happy with the results!).

I think many of you remember when I did the Feeling Feminine Challenge and really this is alot like it so I am uber excited and would love if you would go on over to Authentic Beauty and Link Up!




Random Add-in:

So I love taking pictures and editing them but I haven't really had a chance to do much stuff with photography lately. Well, last week I had a chance to take some pictures. It was so much fun! :) So I thought I would share some of my favorites with you all!

These first ones were taken at our horse pasture one evening last week. I kind of turned it into an impromptu photo shoot of Abby with a ladybug and field shot thrown in! :)








The other impromptu photo shoot was the other evening when we went over to some friends house to spend some time with them before one of them headed of to Pensacola Christian College in Florida (insert sniffle and sob here). It was a gorgeous night and we had a ton of fun (my favorite part was arranging the girls for their pics! lol).












Challenge #2:
Ever have one of those days when one of your sibling just...blows you away with a convicting challenge? I had one of those days a few Sundays ago.
As many of you know, my younger sister Abby had the awesome opportunity to go to Papua New Guinea with New Tribes Missions for 5 1/2 weeks this summer. About two weeks after she got home she gave a presentation of her time there in our evening service. I wanted leave you with this excerpt of her presentation to ponder:



Even if we are not necessarily called to foreign missions what are we doing here? It is so easy to just stay in our own little comfortable Christian bubble and to not even make that much of an effort to reach the lost! What she said about only ONE man in a TWO HOUR radius being unsaved...HOW MANY PEOPLE IN OUR TWO MILE RADIUS' ARE UNSAVED? May God give us HIS heart for this dying people ALL AROUND US that are DESTINED for an eternity in hell!



What are we doing with the privilege we have been given-the GOSPEL?

This Girl...

This Girl
Is a Missionary Kid
This Girl
has grown up in the Republic of Congo.
This Girl
loves to laugh and be crazy.
This Girl
wrote and starred in a feature length movie.












This Girl was not embarrassed to run around an airport parking garage and pose by random cars with me some while depicting (or...trying to)we were movie stars being stalked by paparazzi (Yes...we are 18 and 19 but what can I say it was one of those crazy,
fun, once in a life time moments!)

This Girl
is fluent in three languages.
This Girl
loves Jesus Christ and strives to please Him.
This Girl
loves to have heart-to-hearts and listen while you cry.
This Girl
can play guitar and make movies.
This Girl
is one of my best friends.

Thank you Olivia for standing by me all these years. I really love and appreciate you and your friendship so very much! This furlough is way too short! Thanks for all the memories and the laughs and yes, sometimes the tears. You are such a blessing from the Lord in my life!
Love you :)
Kit Kat Kate